Monday, November 29, 2010

Your money at work building cars in Italy. How are we going to compete and create good paying jobs in this country? Will organized labor follow the lead of our President and freeze wages?

An historic auto plant in the northern Italian city of Turin will get an infusion of $1.3 billion, Chrysler and Fiat announced on Nov. 26. "The plan foresees the creation of a joint enterprise between Chrysler and Fiat to bring to Turin a new platform from the United States to produce cars and SUVs for the Jeep and Alfa Romeo brands," Fiat said.
Fiat has taken operational control of Chrysler, which owns the Jeep brand. The Alfa Romeo brand belongs to Fiat.
The two groups could produce up to 280,000 vehicles a year at the Mirafiori plant -- Fiat's biggest factory, with around 12,000 employees.
Fiat said the "inevitable" condition for this agreement was that trade unions had to increase productivity at the plant.
Fiat earlier this year said it would invest 20 billion euros in Italy by 2014 in order to double its production in the country but has called for a reform of contracts with trade unions to make its plants more competitive.